Going to the Show documents and illuminates the experience of movies
and moviegoing in North Carolina from the introduction of projected motion pictures (1896)
to the end of the silent film era (circa 1930).

Through its innovative use of more than 750 Sanborn® Fire Insurance maps of forty-five towns
and cities between 1896 and 1922, the project situates early moviegoing within the experience of
urban life in the state's big cities and small towns. It highlights the ways that race
conditioned the experience of moviegoing for all North Carolinians- white, African American,
and American Indian. Its collection inventories every known N.C. African American movie theater
in operation between 1908 and 1963.

Supporting its documentation of more than 1300 movie venues across 200 communities is a
searchable archive of thousands of contemporaneous artifacts: newspaper ads and articles,
photographs, postcards, city directories, and 150 original architectural drawings.

Special features of Going to the Show include an in-depth case study of moviegoing in Wilmington, North Carolina, that:

recovers the experience of attending one of the state's earliest movie theaters in 1906-07

Movie theater architecture in the South is documented through the plans for 23
theaters designed by Erle Stillwell. Five extensive lesson plans have been developed to
encourage teachers to use Going to the Show as a resource for teaching social and
cultural history.

Going to the Show is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions
of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the
State Library of North Carolina.
Professor Allen's participation in the project was supported by the
National Endowment for the Humanities,
through its Digital Humanities Fellowship Program.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this web site
do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.